This is a very solid, free standing petrified wood sculpture we've crafted from a gem grade fossil conifer that was excavated from the Saddle Mountain dig site in the state of Washington. You simply aren't going to believe how gemmy and lustrous that polished face is until you see it! The wood grain in this piece is as beautiful as petrified wood gets and the natural shape cut from the side of the log is absolutely breathtaking! I really like the way this one turned out - it's quite dramatic and will display very nicely! This one I cut with the wood grain rather than across it to provide a very artistic, flowing sculpture that looks amazing both in the polished face and on the exterior of the fossil wood turned stone. The picture doesn't do this one justice so I'm confident you're in for a very pleasant surprise when you open this package. The back and sides are rough and natural and still have a thin layer of the volcanic ash that preserved this fallen conifer tree. The wood color is rich and beautiful and the stone exhibits a very glossy polish coaxed from the cut face to reveal all of the color and growth features from this ancient gem fossil. This is a conifer, likely an ancient sequoia. It stands as shown in the photo, ready for your desk or mantle. The exterior texture is rough and natural as excavated, while the face is cut and polished to a mirror finish to reveal the treasure contained within.
Here's a nice petrified wood standup specimen from our neighboring state, Washington. Washington has a few nice petrified wood deposits, but the most productive is undoubtedly the Saddle Mtn. dig site. The Saddle Mtn. wood is sort of a cross between what you'll find on the McDonald Ranch and McDermitt here in Oregon. The wood grain is typically very well preserved in a combination of gold, white, coffee and cream colors, like the McDermitt wood, but it's got a really high opal content like the McDonald Ranch wood does, particularly near the rind of the log. The opal content makes it a bit more challenging to get a good polish on, but this piece really shined up beautifully. The rings are really well preserved in this one and under magnification you can see clearly it is a conifer without resin canals.
This is a standup specimen, which means we've cut the base flat so that it will stand on it's own for display. It's a pretty showy one too. This piece stands about 12 1/8" tall and measures about 7 1/4" wide. It's about 2 1/4" thick at the base (front to back). Weight is 11.6 lbs. This wedge shaped display piece was cut at a steep sloping angle and then polished to show off all the gemmy detail inside. The base is cut flat so that you can present it nicely without a stand and show it off on a bookshelf or table. It took a beautiful polish, it really does look like a mirror! It's another one of those beautiful fossil treasures that some happy Sticks-in-Stones customer is going to flip over! A nice, unique naturally wonderful stone collectible exclusively from Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary.